202 The Life of the Spider 



hardly exceeds a peppercorn in bulk. This 

 slenderness on the part of the spinstresses must 

 not prejudice us against their work : there is no 

 parity between their skill and their years. The 

 adult Spiders, with their disgraceful paunches, 

 can do no better. 



Moreover, the beginners have one very pre- 

 cious advantage for the observer : they work by 

 day, work even in the sun, whereas the old ones 

 weave only at night, at unseasonable hours. The 

 first show us the secrets of their looms without 

 much difficulty ; the others conceal them from 

 us. Work starts in July, a couple of hours 

 before sunset. 



The spinstresses of my enclosure then leave 

 their daytime hiding-places, select their posts 

 and begin to spin, one here, another there. 

 There are many of them ; we can choose where 

 we please. Let us stop in front of this one, 

 whom we surprise in the act of laying the 

 foundations of the structure. Without any 

 appreciable order, she runs about the rosemary- 

 hedge, from the tip of one branch to another, 

 within the limits of some eighteen inches. 

 Gradually, she puts a thread in position, drawing 



